The labor market has swung from the Great Resignation to “job hugging,” where workers cling to their roles out of fear of AI-driven layoffs and inflation, crushing engagement and accelerating burnout. At the same time, OpenAI is accused of suppressing research showing job losses, ignoring internal warnings about chatbot mental health risks, and bleeding safety staff, while state Attorneys General fire off an opening salvo likening unchecked AI harms to an opioid crisis-in-the-making. The AI boom is now colliding with reality. Environmental groups want a halt on new datacenters as power prices spike, and the industry is starting to look financially radioactive, with opaque financing schemes, hidden debt, and trillion-dollar infrastructure bets that could vaporize household wealth. Regulators are pushing back too: the EU is fining X, probing Google over training data, and floating a statutory licensing scheme for AI scraping, while Disney dives in with a billion-dollar bet on “responsible” AI storytelling that mostly translates to fewer humans on payroll. Meanwhile, everyday tech dystopia rolls on. Uber is monetizing your movement data, Instacart is quietly price-discriminating groceries, Waymo is spinning a robotaxi birth as a feel-good story, and crypto fraud finally earns real prison time. Add in AI-generated marketing slop, government sites hijacked by SEO porn, billion-dollar festival scams resurrected, and Congress kneecapping right-to-repair, and the takeaway is simple: the machines are hungry, the adults are absent, and the vibes are aggressively bad. Sponsors: CleanMyMac - Get Tidy Today! Try 7 days free and use code OLDGEEKS for 20% off at clnmy.com/OLDGEEKS Gusto - Try Gusto today at gusto.com/grumpy , and get three months free when you run your first payroll. Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month. SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!! 1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1password Show notes at https://gog.show/726 Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/eJbLlVhIQ-Y FOLLOW UP “Why ‘job hugging’ can be worse than quitting” OpenAI Accused of Self-Censoring Research That Paints AI In a Bad Light OpenAI, Anthropic, Others Receive Warning Letter from Dozens of State Attorneys General IN THE NEWS More than 200 environmental groups demand halt to new US datacenters Something Ominous Is Happening in the AI Economy OpenAI's house of cards seems primed to collapse X shuts down the European Commission’s ad account the day after major fine EU opens antitrust investigation into Google's AI practices EU Report Distills AI-Training Lessons from Napster Piracy Era: Don’t Sue, License Disney Invests $1 Billion in the AI Slopification of Its Brand Uber will start selling trip and takeout data to marketers Instacart Charging Customers Different Prices for Same Products, Study Finds Waymo's robotaxi fleet is being recalled again, this time for failing to stop for school buses Driverless delivery: Woman gives birth in San Francisco Waymo Crypto mogul Do Kwon sentenced to 15 years in prison for $40 billion stablecoin fraud Porn Is Being Injected Into Government Websites Via Malicious PDFs Marco Rubio bans Calibri font at State Department for being too DEI 'Architects of AI' named Time Magazine's Person of the Year MEDIA CANDY The American Revolution What Happened at Billy McFarland’s PHNX Festival? The Lord of the Rings trilogy returns to theaters in January for 25th anniversary Amazon’s Official ‘Fallout’ Season 1 Recap Is AI Garbage Filled With Mistakes Spartacus House of Ashur The Boys - Final Season Teaser Trailer | Prime Video Paradise Season 2 | Official Teaser | Hulu Supergirl | Official Teaser Trailer No Such Thing As a Fish - Ep612: No Such Thing As The Gordon Ramsay Songbook WTF Happened To Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009)?! Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | Official Trailer | Paramount+ (NYCC 2025) Starfleet Academy - What Is This Garbage? APPS & DOODADS Google and Apple partner on better Android-iPhone switching Congress removes right to repair language from 2026 defense bill Glide Gear TMP 100 Teleprompter – DSLR, Tablet, Smartphone – 12" Glass, Carry Case, No Assembly BetterDisplay Pro THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE Dave Bittner The CyberWire Hacking Humans Caveat Control Loop Only Malware in the Building Splat HiFi The History Behind All the Cuts of the Original ‘Star Wars’’ Rise of the Resistance | Layout Side By Side BLUE MONDAY - Analyzing the MOST BRUTAL BEAT of the '80s | Drum Patterns Explained See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .
